In general, a refrigerator is an apparatus which maintains the temperature of a storage region provided in the refrigerator to a predetermined temperature to keep food frozen or refrigerated, using a refrigeration cycle configured of a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve, and an evaporator. The refrigerator typically includes storage regions such as a freezing chamber and a refrigerating chamber.
The refrigerator is also classified according to positions of the freezing chamber and the refrigerating chamber. For example, the refrigerator may be classified into a top mount type refrigerator in which the freezing chamber is arranged above the refrigerating chamber, a bottom freezer type refrigerator in which the freezing chamber is arranged beneath the refrigerating chamber, a side by side type refrigerator in which the freezing chamber and the refrigerating chamber are arranged to the left and right by a partition wall, and the like.
The freezing chamber and the refrigerating chamber are provided within a cabinet defining an external appearance of the refrigerator, and are respectively opened and closed by a freezing chamber door and a refrigerating chamber door. The freezing chamber door and the refrigerating chamber door are rotatably mounted to the cabinet, and are each provided with a gasket for sealing the inside of the storage chamber.
In recent years, there has been proposed a refrigerator for meeting various consumers' demands and preventing a loss of cold air due to frequent opening and closing of a door. For example, there is disclosed a refrigerator which has a separate storage region (hereinafter, referred to as “an auxiliary storage region” for convenience) in addition to storage regions of the refrigerator such as a freezing chamber and a refrigerating chamber and is designed to be accessible to the auxiliary storage region without opening a door of the refrigerator.
For instance, Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2010-0130508 discloses a refrigerator which has an auxiliary storage region in a main door of the refrigerator, installs an auxiliary door to a front surface of the main door, and is designed to be accessible to the auxiliary storage region by opening and closing only the auxiliary door. However, such a refrigerator may cause a leakage of cold air between a cabinet and the main door and between the main door and the auxiliary door.
In order to prevent the leakage of cold air, a gasket is used each between the cabinet and the main door and between the main door and the auxiliary door. Accordingly, parts to be sealed by the gasket are increased, resulting in an increase in loss of cold air by the increased parts and thus an increase in power consumption.
Accordingly, the increase in parts to be sealed by the gasket may increase a loss region of cold air in itself and may increase concern about dew formation due to a temperature difference around the gasket. That is, this means that an installation region of a heater has to be increased in order to prevent dew formation around the gasket. Consequently, power consumption may be increased and the door may have a complicated structure.
Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2011-0040567 discloses a refrigerator which uses only one door by locating an auxiliary storage region within a cabinet. However, it is technically very difficult to locate the auxiliary storage region within the cabinet.
In order for the auxiliary storage region to rotate independently of or together with the refrigerator door, a rotary mechanism such as a hinge should be provided outside the cabinet. In addition, the refrigerator door should be sealed such that the refrigerator door comes into contact with a front surface of the cabinet to prevent a leakage of cold air. However, the refrigerator door is not easy to be sealed by interference with the rotary mechanism of the auxiliary storage region.
The above patent Publication discloses a linker which allows the auxiliary storage region to be rotatable relative to the cabinet by installing a rotary mechanism inside the cabinet. The linker has a structure by which the auxiliary storage region slides to the outside of the cabinet and is then rotated. Accordingly, there are problems in that a coupling structure between the auxiliary storage region and the cabinet is complicated and particularly a hinge connecting them has a very complicated structure. In addition, due to characteristics of the hinge connecting the auxiliary storage region and the cabinet, the auxiliary storage region may be deflected or the hinge may be deformed by loads of the auxiliary storage region. Particularly, there is a problem in that the hinge, through which a first link is slidably connected to a second link, is very weak to loads perpendicular to a sliding direction. Thus, when the auxiliary storage region is rotated relative to the cabinet independently of the door in an opened state of the door, the loads of the auxiliary storage region may be concentrated on the hinge. Consequently, the hinge may be severely deformed and the auxiliary storage region may be deflected.
Meanwhile, in the refrigerator having such a structure, the refrigerator door and the auxiliary storage region need to be simultaneously opened in order for a user to have access to a storage space within the cabinet of the refrigerator. However, as disclosed in the above patent Publication, since opening operations of the refrigerator door and the auxiliary storage region do not coincide with each other, there is inconvenience in that the refrigerator door and the auxiliary storage region are not simultaneously opened.
In order for the auxiliary storage region to be rotatably opened independently of the cabinet while being received within the cabinet of the refrigerator, various other structures have been proposed.
For instance, Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2013-0024207 published by the present applicant discloses a rotary mechanism having other structure for receiving an auxiliary storage region within a cabinet of a refrigerator. This technique teaches a method in which the auxiliary storage region is rotated relative to a refrigerator door instead of the cabinet, and the auxiliary storage region is connected to the refrigerator door by an articulated pivot linker. In the structure in which the auxiliary storage region is rotated relative to a refrigerator door, although this technique takes account of rotation interference between the refrigerator door and the auxiliary storage region, it is not proper to store heavy food in the refrigerator since the more joints the rotary mechanism has the weaker it is to the loads of the auxiliary storage region.
Meanwhile, Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2013-0079770 published by the present applicant discloses a structure in which an auxiliary storage region is seated to a cabinet while being received within the cabinet of a refrigerator in a closed state of a refrigerator door in the cabinet. In this structure, when a user intends to open only the refrigerator door, the auxiliary storage region is left within the cabinet. On the other hand, when a user intends to have access to a storage space of the cabinet, the auxiliary storage region may be opened together with the refrigerator door by attaching the auxiliary storage region inside the refrigerator door.
This technique enables loads applied to the auxiliary storage region to be transferred toward the cabinet though a hinge of the refrigerator door, by opening the auxiliary storage region dependent upon the refrigerator door without rotatably opening the auxiliary storage region independently of the cabinet. However, the technique is problematic in that the structure is very complicated and the auxiliary storage region is not operated independently of the refrigerator door.
Thus, although various methods have been proposed in order to minimize a sealing part for preventing a leakage of cold air by receiving the openable auxiliary storage region and the refrigerator door within the cabinet of the refrigerator, the methods have problems in terms of the complicated structure, deflection by weight of food, and interlocking with the refrigerator door.
Particularly, the proposed conventional techniques attempt technical access to a new form, instead of applying the hinge mechanism configured of the single component provided in the refrigerator door. This means that it is not easy to receive the auxiliary storage region within the cabinet of the refrigerator.